Lost Girl: S5 E14 Follow the Yellow Trick Road

“Follow the Yellow Trick Road” is episode 14 of season 5 of Lost Girl. Let’s skip toward Oz with the characters from The Wizard of Oz as Bo dreams her way toward the acceptance of Trick’s death.

This recap contains spoilers. You are informed.

Bo (Anna Silk) wakes up in a red checked gingham dress in a black and white world. She thinks she woke up in a episode of I Love Lucy but we aren’t fooled because later she admits, “We’re not in Kansas anymore.”

Back to reality, IRL if you will. Bo is still unresponsive and unspeaking after her mother and Trick’s deaths. Lauren (Zoie Palmer) has her hooked up to monitors and IVs, and everyone is gathered round her with worried expressions. And check it out: Tamsin (Rachel Skarsten) sports a baby bump.

Dream Bo meets up with a Tamsin look-alike named Tomasita. In a colony where everyone is gone because the Pyrippus came back, only the heartless capitalist (if she only had a heart) Tomasita remains behind, sizing up profits to be made on real estate.

Tomasita says they need to find The Maestro because he knows everything. Bo fervently hopes The Maestro isn’t her father.

Back IRL, Tamsin refuses to talk about her pregnancy with Lauren. She tells Lauren to leave her alone, while secretly being very, very, very upset about the whole alone and preggers thing.

Dream Bo knows Tomasita is alone because someone broke her heart. And because no one really wants to be alone all the time.

Tomasita says they need to follow the red brick road to find The Maestro, but only “The One” can see red. Good thing Bo sees red.

Dream Bo and Tomasita magically move into the country and glorious technicolor. As they look ahead, a brick road builds itself in front of them, with one path in red.

Mark (Luke Bilyk) and Vex (Paul Amos) show up with all of Trick’s books. Dyson (Kris Holden-Ried) scoffs to think that Mark presumes he can read the sacred tomes. Vex defends Mark. No surprise there.

Dream Bo is in the woods with Tomasita. The trees whisper “pyrippus.” They meet a wolf. A cowardly wolf. Cowardly Wolf introduces himself as Sergeant Major Nosyd. He has no gun and no platoon, so Bo quickly decides he’s a deserter hiding from Pyrippus. Nosyd admits as much, but he knows how to get to The Maestro.

IRL Dyson is tapping on the jack-in-the-box, berating himself for not being enough of a hero. Bo incorporates the tapping into her dream state.

Dream Bo realizes that her friends know she’s asleep. They can’t wake her up. Nosyd says he isn’t brave enough to help them. Or maybe he says if you spell his name backwards he’s a vacuum cleaner. In either case, he’s cowardly.

Bo says she’s always wanted to follow his lead and he agrees to go with them. They’re off to see The Maestro, tra la.

IRL, Lauren found a toxin she can’t identify in Bo’s blood. She doesn’t know how to treat it. Dyson, being a cop and everything, wants to follow the evidence. He finds a tear in the dress Bo was wearing, They decide that’s where something bit her.

Well, the books are sure handy now, because Dyson finds out about a Shtriga moth. They think it bit Bo. To cure her, the moth must take human form and spit blood back into Bo’s mouth. Sometimes Fae folklore grosses me out.

Okay, team. Go find a moth.

The Cowardly Wolf leads dream Bo to an elevator. Inside is the painting of Greece we’ve seen so many times in the elevator on the way to the penthouse where the Ancients hang out.

IRL Lauren is having a breakdown because she’s supposed to be smart but she’s too stupid to figure out how to help Bo. She chews her knuckles and gets emotional and everything.

Stupid Lauren works her way into Bo’s dream as Lola, who brandishes a gun filled with fruit punch and makes lame-brained dumb girl remarks. One of them is that she had the map to The Maestro, but she lost it.

Bo tells her she’s smarter than she thinks she is and the map is in her head. All she has to do is think.

Lola tries thinking. Bo says, “Don’t hurt yourself.” This line made me laugh so hard, mostly because Zoie Palmer was killing it with her thinking face.

Back IRL, they decide to try to lure the moth with light.

Mark and Vex head for the attic, where they try to catch a moth. They discuss whether or not Vex regrets the bad stuff he did. Vex says he regrets it all, which pleases Mark. Somehow this equates to Vex being of two faces – dark and light.

There are some very cool special effects in this episode. Two-faced Vex is a great one. This double duty Vex meets up with dream Bo in a hall of mirrors. Both heads talk at various times.

Bo can’t look away from the mirror, which sucks her soul. Tomasita spends her time quizzing the two-headed dude about his brother. She gets this riddle out of him:

You saw me where I never was
and where I could not be
and yet within that very place,
my face you often see.

Bo says he’s showing us who we really are. Nosyd is brave. Tomasita has a big heart. Lola has a brain. The mirror shatters.

Bo is in front of the rope, which she pulls because she wants to meet the man behind the curtain.

Dream Bo’s suddenly in the Dal. She sees a wizard in a red robe. When the Wizard removes her hood, it’s Bo. That’s La Maestra, to you amiga.

There’s a wonderful scene with Bo talking to Bo. The Wizard of the Dal says, “Only when the master is gone can you become the master.” Regular Bo, the one in the gingham dress with the braids, says she’s lost without Trick. The Caped Wiz says she will grant Bo the one thing she searches for – home. I was expecting gingham Bo to click her heels just then, but she did not. Details, people, details.

IRL, guess who climbs through the attic window as Dyson and Tamsin look for the moth? It’s the girl most attractive to giant moths, Cosima Niehaus and Benedict Arnold – the magnificent Kenzi (Ksenia Solo). Kenzi heard her BFF was in trouble and came climbing.

Tamsin quickly traps the moth perched on Kenzi’s shoulder with a butterfly net.

Kenzi tells Lauren that she got snail mail telling her about Trick and Aife. She thought it was from Lauren. Lauren says it must have been Jack.

Lauren has the moth under a cake cover and plans to get blood from a sack in its body. This blood can be injected into Bo’s mouth.

Dream Bo is in the clubhouse. Even though she didn’t click her heels to get there, she says, “There’s no place like home.” Then she sees Kenzi. Kenzi wears a white dress with moth-like wings. She and Bo share a big hug.

During this dream hug, RL Lauren is pushing a syringe full of moth blood into Bo’s mouth. Bo starts jerking. Dream Kenzi also jerks a lot. Then she flies off.

Kenzi flies back. Her moth-winged dress is now black. I know this is supposed to be good witch and bad witch in keeping with the Oz theme, but all I can think of is a very sexy Alyson Hannigan flying overhead as Dark Willow in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

There’s a struggle between Dark Moth Woman and Bo. The special effects in this scene were really fun. Lots of flying and acrobatics. Finally Dark Moth Woman gets Bo on the floor. A black insect-like tongue inches out of her mouth as she closes in for a kiss while telling Bo to accept it.

There’s a blood-injection-kiss and a flash of light.

White Moth Woman, AKA Good Witch, is back with a white horse and a very special horseshoe. Bo says, “Are you the Pyrripus? I always thought you were bad.”

Good Witch says you are only bad until you find your way. “You possess the key.” She gives Bo the horseshoe. “The power is in the one who holds the reins (reigns?).”

Bo says she can’t fight her father without Trick. Good Witch says, “You hold the key. Accept it.”

Good Witch says, “Goodbye, Bo.” Bo answers, “Goodbye, Trick.”

Bo wakes up from her dream and begins to cry because Trick is really gone.

Now that Bo has accepted Trick’s death, they will read Trick’s will. As Bo reads the will aloud, Dyson hands out goodies to everyone from the box the will was stored in. Kenzi gets the ring of Yggdrasil, which grants freedom from claiming and allows her passage between Fae and human worlds. Lauren gets all the books of the Occult because there is a happy marriage between science and magic. I’m thinking that sentence is secret code for there’s a happy marriage between Lauren and Bo.

Tamsin gets the blanket of Skeemotah, which is woven from the sky. If you are under the stars, you are home. Vex gets a compass because he found his light in the dark. Dyson and Mark together get the Dal, to keep as a place of sanctuary.

Bo starts to cry when she reads that Trick left her his heart and his eternal gratitude. Kenzi finishes reading. “Life is not about finding a path. It’s about creating one. Don’t forget you are my blood, too.”

After the will reading and the touching moments are over, Vex goes to the attic with Tamsin’s blanket. He doesn’t want her to forget it.

Jack (Eric Roberts) is in the attic. He grabs Vex and says he wants to send the team a message. Then he cuts Vex’s throat. No, not Vexie, too!

This episode was written by Ley Lukins. She also wrote “End of Faes” and “It’s Your Lucky Fae.” The director was Paolo Barzman.

Some Thoughts

The Wizard of Oz has endured since 1939 because it is great storytelling. Like Lost Girl, it’s about finding your way to the truth of who you are. I thought it was a perfect metaphor for Bo’s dream and acceptance of Trick’s death. And it didn’t detract from Trick’s reminder to Bo of the central theme for all 5 years of Lost Girl: I will live the life I choose.

We not only lost Trick, we lost Vex as well. Will anyone be left when Bo finally uses the key to the queendom?

Gold medals to the special effects crew for this episode. It was a treat. Also gold medals to Kris Holden-Ried for his cowardly bit and to Zoie Palmer for her stupid bit. I love that stuff.

I must mention how delightful it is to have Ksenia Solo on the scene. Kenzi promised a joke about sacks after Bo was cured. Where’s the sack joke, Kenz?

Only two episodes left. We will all be in mourning in two weeks and will need kisses from Kenzi to help us accept our loss.